The Question
by shallowness
Summary: Zach wanted to be the one to ask this question, but what will Magenta’s answer be? Futurefic
1. Chapter 1

Summary: Zach wanted to be the one to ask this question, but what will Magenta's answer be?

Disclaimer: None of the characters are mine, and I make no profit from this fan-written fiction.

Author's Note: Thanks to pyroblaze18 for the beta! I wanted to write something about the Sky High characters and had a look at a list of prompts in a drabblethon thingy. The prompt 'marriage' was for characters in another fandom entirely, and instead of writing about Layla, Warren and Will, which I'd thought I'd do, I was inspired to write this fluffy ficlet. Then, I found I couldn't finish it there and wrote the second part.

This is technically in the same 'verse as 'Zach, He's Here to Help', but you don't have to have read it.

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**The Question (1/2): shallowness**

**Popping the Question**

It was Magenta who first asked him to dance, and, some months later, first asked him out.

"_If we go see a movie, do you promise you won't glow?"_

"_Uh, yeah. Sure."_

"_Hmm, maybe we won't go see a horror movie."_

She was the one who said it was about time they got an apartment together. They went to see so many places with the Strongholds that he picked one out of tiredness, sitting down on the stairs, unable to move.

"_Looks like we're going to take this one, Mrs Stronghold. Um, could you help Zach up, please, Mr Stronghold?"_

"_Sure thing Magenta!"_

"_Ouch! I can stand! I can stand!"_

"_What about walking?"_

"_I can totally do that too."_

"_Put him down, Steve."_

Zach plans on asking Magenta to dance tonight. There'll be candlelight, but no glowing – he's gained plenty of control the past seven years, and for most of them, Magenta hasn't been ashamed to be seen in his company. He guesses he'll go down on one knee.

"_What are you doing?"_

"_I wanted to be the one to ask. Magenta, will you marry me?"_

He hopes several things: that he's got the timing right and that she'll say yes, because there's no use pretending that he'd be cool with her saying no. He also really hopes that he doesn't throw up.

TBC

Feedback is loved.


	2. Chapter 2

Summary: Zach wanted to be the one to ask this question, but what will Magenta's answer be?

Disclaimer: None of the characters are mine, and I make no profit from this fan-written fiction.  
See part 1 for the author's notes

* * *

**The Question (2/2): shallowness**

**Answering the Question**

It's not good when the guy who cooked the dinner you're eating is turning green. And not the glowy green 'Zach Attack' produces, but regular 'I'm going to puke' green, a shade Magenta got familiar with when Stan Leigh was their school bus driver.

"Are you okay?" Magenta asks Zach.

He works up a grin and says too heartily, "I'm fine."

He's sweating and clearly not fine, but she's tired and he was so insistent about this dinner. He went to the effort to make her favorite, shrimp fried rice, with just enough oyster sauce. So she keeps eating and enjoying her meal, expecting him to bolt for the bathroom all the while, but he doesn't and she eventually clears her plate. She watches with a little disappointment as Zach carries the plates away, as he was just playing with his food.

"So, I got into the subterranean levels of Chronontium labs today," Magenta says over the key lime pie Zach produces for desert. It's store-bought, there is no way he's that good a chef. "No giant robots. Either the reports are wrong or they have another compound."

"What about a level beneath the subterranean level?"

"Hmm, could be. Devious. Are you eating that?"

"No," he confirms and Magenta exchanges her empty bowl for his. Everything about this evening, from his suggestion that she changed into something less dusty and more comfortable to the mood the candlelight and music are weaving is telling her to indulge herself. If she were more sentimental, she'd tell Zach that she loves him for his thoughtfulness, for the hundred ways he makes her life better, even when he doesn't go to this effort. She's not that girl.

"Thank you, for this." She can be polite, though. He smiles. Magenta notices he looks less green.

When she's finished his portion, he takes her hand. "Wanna dance?

"Nothing too fast. I'm pretty full." Plus she's not sure about whether he'll be able to handle it.

He turns the music up with the remote. It's kind of a ballad, and they hold each other close. Magenta shuts her eyes and eventually snuggles into him. He's become a much calmer dancer. And all the years of holding her and loving her have made him quite the expert at dancing with her.

The song ends and she's slow to open her eyes, but he pulls away, which makes her open her eyes fully and fast. She's about to say something heroic about doing the dishes, when he kneels...she's looking down at him because he's kneeling...

"What are you doing?" But there's a box and a ring...she knows what's coming...

"I wanted to be the one to ask. Magenta, will you marry me?"

His eyes are vulnerable. Will and Layla told her a long time ago that she had a lot of power over Zach and that she should treat him carefully. She sometimes takes that for granted, but not tonight. She gulps.

"Um, yeah. Okay."

"Really?" He bounces up to stand.

"I said so, didn't I?" she almost snaps, almost cries. He's looking down at her hand to put the ring on. Both their hands are trembling. She thinks it's ridiculous, wonderful. The ring fits, which is some kind of miracle.

She lifts up her hand to his face, wanting to say something about his return to normal color, checking that this is all real, but the look on his face reassures her even as it floors her. She feels more powerful than Will Stronghold himself right now and knowing she's given Zach the same feeling will stay with her all her life.

She leans up to kiss her fiancé, gentle at first, but he's picking her up and the enthusiasm is contagious. He asked her to marry him and her kisses answer him, over and over again.

Fin.

Feedback is loved.


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